The purpose of this toolkit is to share resources and knowledge that others have found useful in developing programs for primary prevention of intimate partner violence. The toolkit is organized by topics and resources, often website links, are listed under each topic. Inclusion of resources does NOT indicate endorsement of the material.

Many resources in this toolkit are for intervention or secondary prevention rather than primary prevention. Resources are included to inform your process. The process of developing primary prevention programming for your community will likely include integrating a number of materials throughout the toolkit that include primary prevention as well as secondary prevention materials/activities. We believe the reader is most often the best judge of which tools are most appropriate in their community and with their population.

This toolkit is organized in three main parts. First, we introduce the main concepts for primary prevention. Then, we describe primary prevention approaches on four levels of the Social Ecological Model. Finally, we include a reading and viewing list at the end with several additional resources.

This is a collective, growing toolkit. Please contact Brandy Carlson (carlson_brandy@fcadv.org) if you have resources or explanations that you would like to add to the toolkit to share with others.

Acknowledgements

This toolkit was developed in partial fulfillment of grant activities funded by the Florida Department of Children and Families and The Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

The following representatives of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) member centers volunteered and worked diligently to develop, organize, and compile this toolkit.

Primary prevention is any action, strategy or policy that prevents intimate partner violence from initially occurring. Primary prevention seeks to reduce the overall likelihood that anyone will become a victim or a perpetrator by creating conditions that make violence less likely to occur. Prevention of IPV focuses on preventing first-time perpetration and first time victimization.

Secondary and Tertiary prevention (often called intervention, or prevention) are efforts to identify and address early signs of abuse or abusiveness (secondary) or even to change individuals who are already abused or abusive (tertiary) in order to reduce the consequences of abuse and prevent recurrence.

Intimate partner violence includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats of physical or sexual violence, psychological/emotional abuse, financial abuse, and stalking between those who are or have been involved in a marital, sexual, or dating relationship.

Risk Factors

Far more is known about risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration than victimization. Also, prevention programs appear far more successful at preventing perpetration than victimization. Perhaps this is because perpetrators are ultimately responsible for their actions, and it is difficult for another person to anticipate and control an abuser's actions. The World Health Organization identified several risk factors associated with a man's risk for abusing his partner (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Based on the same research evidence, the Kansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence identified additional risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration. Still, these risk factors likely represent an incomplete list. Some example risk factors that primary prevention seeks to address across different levels of the social ecological model are:

Individual

Belief in strict gender roles

Desire for power and control

Relationship

Abuses of power

Dominance and control of the relationship by one partner over the other

Community

Negative portrayal of women in the media

Weak community sanctions against domestic violence perpetrators

Societal

Institutional structures that promote unequal power between men and women

Traditional gender norms

The group most at risk for perpetration of IPV is men, while the group most at risk of IPV victimization is women. For example, at the societal level, risk factors for perpetration and victimization include historical and societal patterns that glorify violence against women, institutional structures that promote unequal power between men and women, and negative portrayal of women in the media.

Addressing these risk factors requires diverse strategies. Primary prevention strategies and specific activities are those directed at the general population, or a subset of the general population, designed to promote healthy, non-violent relationships. Examples of primary prevention strategies include working with men and boys to confront norms of masculinity, promoting positive relationship skills and attitudes of youth at individual and community levels, and school policies on responding to sexualized bullying.

A through understanding of this multi-layered topic is essential for primary prevention programmers, community partners and community members engaged in primary prevention work.

The Primary Prevention Approach with Youth:
The Primary Prevention Approach seeks to prevent youth from ever becoming victims or perpetrators of domestic violence by giving them the skills and knowledge to build healthy relationships. A second key component is working in communities to create positive changes that discourage violence and support their efforts to create healthy relationships.

Primary prevention is a process based on implementing programs and raising awareness on multiple levels of society simultaneously. Initially, individuals (youth) build the tools necessary to form healthy relationships, and then the people they have relationships with (peers, parents, teachers and mentors) build the tools necessary to support them in forming healthy relationships. At the same time, we are working on changing community attitudes and values that promote violence (gender stereotypes, etc.), and societal norms (legislative policy, laws, etc.) that promote domestic violence.

What Primary Prevention is:

Health promotion based.

Based on skill and knowledge building.

An on-going process, which requires leadership & commitment.

Community owned and integrated into the fabric of the community.

What Primary Prevention is not:

A one-time educational program or event.

One skill-building session.

A program that is entirely planned, implemented and evaluated by the local domestic violence agency.

Primary prevention is about preventing intimate partner violence before it begins. When we look at our communities we can see our intervention services empowering people who have already experienced IPV. In order to see less people needing our intervention services, though, we need to start prevention earlier; this means working with young people. It also means collaborating with social change allies in the community because we know that IPV is supported by many forms of oppression, including sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, etc. Some of the ways that this support is manifested include gender stereotypes (e.g. men as the "head of the household," unequal pay, boys should always be "tough," etc.) and media (e.g. sexist and racist depictions of minorities, "glamorizing" violence against women, etc.). The resources listed below are intended to provide examples of how and why primary prevention = social change.

The Social Ecological Model (SEM) is widely used in Public Health to address health promotion. Applied to intimate partner violence (IPV), SEM offers a promising approach to sustainable and effective programming. SEM is a framework for understanding how multiple levels of influences affect a social problem like intimate partner violence. IPV primary prevention works on four interrelated levels to decrease likelihood for intimate partner violence perpetration or victimization. The individual level includes factors such as an individual's knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. The relationship level includes peer and family influences, or the influence of other individuals such as teachers, coaches, employers, or mentors. The community level involves the local context such as community norms about relationships and violence. Community settings include neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Finally, the societal level includes broader social and cultural norms and values about violence, gender, and relationships.

The SEM holds that there are multiple factors or levels which influence a person's likelihood to perpetrate or be victimized by IPV. These four levels include the individual level, the relationship level, the community level, and the societal level. According to the theory, since each level influences the outcome of IPV, it is important to design and implement prevention programs that address each level. We have included information on the SEM in this toolkit for multiple reasons. One reason is to provide you with a better understanding of each of the four levels and how they interact. Additionally, this information will be able to help you determine which level of the SEM your prevention activities are addressing and lastly, this information should be able to help you create more effective prevention programs.

Examples of Primary Prevention interventions in the Social Ecological Model (SEM):

Program activities should happen at a time that will have maximal impact in a participant's life.

Tailor programs to fit cultural beliefs and practices of specific groups and communities.

A systematic evaluation is necessary to determine whether a program or strategy worked. This includes using results to inform future prevention programs and activities.

Staff should be sensitive, competent, and should have sufficient training, support, and supervision before implementing programs.

Cultural Competence

Cultural Competence is a developmental process that results in individual, community and organizational understanding of cultural differences and similarities within, among, and between communities, cultures and populations. This competence requires drawing on the community-based values, traditions, and customs to work with knowledgeable persons of and from specific populations in developing specific strategies and communications to address their needs (Adapted from CDC, The National Public Health Performance Standards Program).

In practice, cultural competency is a process of building capacity to understand, respect and work effectively with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds (competency in working with one population does not necessarily equal competency to work with a different population). Working effectively across cultures demands that competent individuals and or organizations find effective ways to communicate with (verbally, in writing and through other forms of interpersonal communication) and implement relevant programs for/with persons from diverse cultures. Cultural competency is not something that an individual or agency be trained on once and achieve. Just as culture is fluid and evolves to reflect changes in groups' resources, tastes, laws, art and relationships, so too does one's level of capacity when it comes to understanding, communicating with and working with specific cultural groups. Cultural competency is a capacity that is achieved and maintained through intentional on-going efforts to learn about and engage with diverse populations.

Culturally competent primary prevention programming is relevant and accessible to intended populations. This principle is essential. If program planners do not have a sufficient level of cultural competence, programs can be irrelevant for intended beneficiaries.

Cultural competence is important throughout all levels of primary prevention programming. Here is a list of resources to assist you in your process.

Primary Prevention involves an integrated relationship with a varied and diverse group of partners (e.g., civic organizations, faith community, military, schools, youth, etc.). Sometimes working with such a diverse group can and often present obstacles which must be creatively and delicately overcome. The key to remaining cohesive and productive with your partners involves constantly putting the goals of primary prevention on the forefront. There are underlying politics with agencies and organizations that almost have to be overlooked for the working relationship to be beneficial. There are so many advantages to working with a diverse group of people who represent various subsets of the population; the faith community, City employees, Criminal Justice System, Children and Family Services. The more diverse the partner the more beneficial to the cause and the goals of primary prevention.

Community Centers
Working with Community Centers operated by the City can be very successful and yet very difficult depending on the level of "buy in" from the center staff. I have found there must be an initial interest from the selected center's staff regarding prevention activities and their own community. Primary Prevention activities at the community centers, because of what Primary Prevention is, requires a desire to better themselves, their center and their community. The struggle exists when any amount of convincing takes place to partake in the activities. If the buy-in is not there, the success of the activities will be minimal. A recommendation would be to have community prevention trainings and focus on several centers and agencies. From there, identify those who express interest and explore the possibilities with those sites. Relationships with Community centers can offer an enormous amount of community support and increase the involvement of other partnerships (homeowners associations, local businesses). If done correctly, the success is enormous.

Working with men & boys
[key considerations coming soon]

http://toolkit.endabuse.org/WhyMenAndBoys/top10/ - An Online Toolkit for Working with Men and Boys" This web site is a comprehensive tool kit designed to help you work with men and boys to prevent gender-based violence. It provides readings, case studies, handouts, exercises, and other resources as well as community-building tools.

Evaluation is simply a process of collecting information about a program and its components in order to measure effectiveness (getting the desired result) and efficiency (running the program with the best use of resources). The evaluation process will help you to determine if you are successfully doing what you set out to do as well as indicate whether or not your program activities had the desired effect you were hoping to see. There are many ways to conduct an evaluation, multiple types of evaluations, as well as numerous reasons why conducting evaluations are important and necessary. We included this section in the toolkit in order to help you understand the basics of evaluation and to hopefully make the evaluation process less intimidating, much more approachable, and maybe even a little fun!

Key terms:

Attribution - progress on goals and objectives are shown to be related to your program. Use to describe your Effectiveness/Outcomes.

Dosage - Clients have enough intervention exposure to result in intended outcomes.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Division of Violence Prevention (2008). Sexual and intimate partner violence prevention programs evaluation guide. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://wwwn.cdc.gov/pubs/ncipc.aspx

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Office of the Director, Office of Strategy and Innovation (2005). Introduction to program evaluation for public health programs: A self-study guide. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/eval/evalguide.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Division of Violence Prevention. (2005). Measuring violence-related attitudes, behaviors, and influences among youths: A compendium of assessment tools (2nd ed.). Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/pdf/YV/CDC_YV_Intro.pdf

Florida is a pioneer state in the prevention of intimate partner violence. Since 2002, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop and implement Florida'sDomestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances (DELTA) program. The purpose of the DELTA program is to prevent first time perpetration and victimization of intimate partner violence. Intimate partner violence includes domestic violence between partners as well as dating violence. Preventing first-time occurrence is called primary prevention. There are currently fourteen US states taking part in the DELTA program: Alaska, California, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, New York, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In Florida, the DELTA program is a collaboration of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the DELTA State Steering Committee (Steering Committee), and six prevention programs in counties throughout Florida. The six local programs are located in Alachua, Okaloosa, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, and Walton counties. For more information and a history of the DELTA program, visit http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/DELTA/DELTA_AAG.pdf

In 2007, FCADV secured funding from Governor Charlie Crist to assist all 42 certified domestic violence centers in building local primary prevention programs. Florida is the first state in the nation to implement primary prevention of intimate partner violence on this level. Each center developed a 5-year plan that they all began to implement in 2008. Additionally, FCADV provides extensive training to all centers regularly to ensure the greatest level of success throughout the state.

The following resources can help you to understand the scope of the work being done here in Florida.

Far more is known about risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration than victimization. Also, prevention programs appear far more successful at preventing perpetration than victimization. Perhaps this is because perpetrators are ultimately responsible for their actions, and it is difficult for another person to anticipate and control an abuser's actions. The World Health Organization identified several risk factors associated with a man's risk for abusing his partner (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Based on the same research evidence, the Kansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence identified additional risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration. Still, these risk factors likely represent an incomplete list. Several risk factors for the individual level of the social ecological model are:

Individual

Belief in strict gender roles

Desire for power and control

Emotional intimacy problems

Homophobia and heterosexism

Lack of empathy toward women

Low self-esteem

Perpetrating psychological aggression

Personality disorders

Witnessing or experiencing violence as a child

Young age

Strategies

Prevention curricula, based on evidence informed models; focus on building healthy and equitable relationships, assertive communication, gender stereotypes and anti-oppression. Prevention efforts target people who have not yet been perpetrators or victims of the violence; hence, the most effective population to target is young people. Adjusting curricula to be culturally relevant is extremely important in working with youth. It is recommended to keep the group of youth participating in the curriculum small so there is plenty of time for rich discussion. Equally as important, evaluation tools need to be created to determine what change is taking place through the time spent working on the individual level. The following resources can assist you in building curricula and evaluation tools. The list is extensive so that different communities can build curricula that is most effective for the populations they serve.

Curricula
We suggest looking into the following curricula for programs to change individuals. Some are more focused on primary prevention than others, but all may offer useful activities.

Healthy Relationships has several subsections that address different topics related to violence prevention. These include: dealing with aggression, gender equality and media awareness, and forming healthy relationships.

Population: developed for high school but in Florida some have adapted it for middle school

Safe Dates provides background on dating violence as well as prevention strategies such as communication. It also includes information on how to help friends, gender stereotypes, and defining caring relationships and dating abuse.

Mentors in Violence Prevention uses the bystander approach to teach participants how everyone can get involved with preventing intimate partner violence. Through scenarios, participants discuss different components of IPV and discuss how they would respond as a bystander. Some examples include: battering, rape, alcohol and consent, and sexual harassment.

Population: developed for college students, includes adaptations and applications for high school

Making the Peace asks participants to consider the different manifestations of violence in our culture. Some of the areas it focuses on are: the roots of violence; race, class, and gender: the difference that difference makes; and making the peace now.

Young Women's Lives uses a strength-based, group approach to empower young women to create the lives they imagine. This curriculum is primarily an intervention tool, but many activities are salient to prevention.

Expect Respect is a comprehensive prevention program designed to raise awareness of dating violence, teach skills for healthy relationships, develop youth leadership, and increase safety and respect on school campuses.

Open Minds to Equality offers violence prevention activities across the grade levels, with specific opportunities for elementary levels. Topics include: developing skills for building trust and communication, developing skills for creative cooperation, examining new perspectives, discrimination, and making change.

Population: elementary

Sjostrom, L. & Stein, N. (1996). Bullyproof: A teacher's guide on teasing and bullying for use with fourth and fifth grade students. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Center for Research on Women.

Bullyproof looks at a variety of relationships in fourth & fifth graders' lives to explore bullying and sexual harassment.

Making Allies, Making Friends gives middle school students an age-appropriate version of Making the Peace (see above). This curriculum includes expanded focus on: diversity and alliance building; understanding and alliances across race and ethnicity, gender differences, and different classes; and dealing with violence here and now.

Population: middle school

Books and other materials

"I Can Make My World a Safer Place: A Kid's Book about Stopping Violence"
This book, which was written for adults to read with 6-11 year olds, is about the first steps in preventing, healing from and finding alternatives to violence. Topics include what to do about teasing and bullies, fights, gangs and weapons, anger, drugs and suicide, child abuse and domestic violence. www.paulkivel.com

"Making Allies, Making Friends: A Curriculum for Making the Peace in Middle School"
Flexible, multi-track curriculum design has over 30 innovative, creative classroom sessions designed to prepare young people to build a healthy multi-cultural community and prevent violence. They address issues of race, class, gender and sexual identity that middle-schoolers face and can be adapted to the needs of many different school environments.www.paulkivel.com

"Making the Peace: A 15-Session Violence Prevention Curriculum for Young People"
"Once again, the Oakland Men's Project leads the way in our field in creating a thoughtful, sensitive and user-friendly curriculum. Their comprehensive approach helps young people deal with the deeper more sensitive issues around violence in a caring safe and respectful manner." www.paulkivel.com

"Hardy Girls, Healthy Women,"
Although many, if not most, national programs designed to support girls in the past 15 years have focused on self-esteem and other internal, psychological issues, HGHW is one of the few programs that addresses girls' lives in relational and social contexts. We believe that it is not the girls, but rather the culture in which they live that is in need of repair.

"White Ribbon Campaign: Education And Action Kit"
Updated in 2005, the perfect tool for the classroom and an excellent guide for teaching youth about violence against women. Now in four versions, Canadian Middle and Secondary and US Middle and Secondary, there is a kit to fit all of your educational needs. www.whiteribbon.ca

"Men Can Stop Rape"
Visit this website to see the variety of tools and resources this D.C. based organization provides. There is information regarding the Strength Campaign, the new Campus Strength program, MOST Clubs and other tools for mobilizing young men to prevent violence against women. www.mencanstoprape.org

"Teacher's Guide: Interesting, Fun, and Effective Classroom Activities To Influence Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention"
This guide was created as a part of the The National Teen Dating Violence Prevention Initiative and offers ideas for teen dating violence prevention activities in different classroom settings. www.fcadv.org/downloads/programs/primary prevention/Teachers Guide.pdf

Developing/adapting curricula
Definitions of two key processes that are important to apply carefully.

Adaptation is the process through which strategies are modified deliberately or accidentally in one of four ways:

deletions or additions (enhancements) of strategy core components,

modifications in the nature of the components that are included,

changes in the manner or intensity of administration of core components,

cultural and other modifications required by local circumstances (SAMHSA, 2002)

Refinement - Getting feedback on strategy materials from staff who would implement the strategy, experts, or representatives of the universal or selected population.

Media literacy
Intimate partner violence is supported by many societal-level influences. One of the major ways that this happen is through media, including images and language. Primary prevention addresses media literacy by raising people's awareness about the messages we receive through media. By becoming a critical consumer of media, people can make choices about the kinds of media they consume as well as advocate for change. The resources listed below include examples of media literacy strategies as well as tools.

Media literacy is the ability to analyze or "take apart" the messages in various forms of media including television, music videos, movies, magazines, video games, etc. Now more than ever youth are bombarded with these messages which can influence their knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs (KABBs) about intimate partner violence. This influence can be negative by way of reinforcing rigid gender roles, objectifying women & girls, and by condoning violence. In contrast, media also has the potential to positively influence youth by promoting healthy relationships and gender equality. We have included media literacy in this toolkit in order to provide you with useful information and resources on how to engage youth to critically think about the messages they receive from the media as well as information on how to encourage them to become more conscious consumers.

While working on all levels of the social ecology, it is important to remember that change can be slow moving and is sometimes not linear. After spending time, energy and pouring your dedication into the lives of the young people you are working with on the individual level, remember that they will be going home, hanging out with friends, and interacting with teachers and other adult community members. In some cases, it will be difficult for some youth to stand true to everything they have learned in our individual level programs. Stepping outside of the social norms will result in social consequences and until prevention work infuses more of the community. This work will take time and steadfast dedication which will ultimately result in lowering relationship-level risk factors.

At the relationship level, we need to focus on building in support for the youth we are directly impacting on the individual level. The goal of this level is to have parents, siblings, teachers, neighbors, business owners and friends begin to interact with each other in ways that support equality, responsibility, accountability and appropriate communication in relationships. One way to reach these members of our society would be to have the youth create presentations to this end and have them invite people in their lives to attend. Youth messaging is a very powerful way to impact the relationships people have with each other. The following examples and resources will help you to engage members of society in supporting the development of healthy, equitable relationships especially for young people.

Risk Factors Associated with Intimate Partner Violence

Far more is known about risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration than victimization. Also, prevention programs appear far more successful at preventing perpetration than victimization. Perhaps this is because perpetrators are ultimately responsible for their actions, and it is difficult for another person to anticipate and control an abuser's actions. The World Health Organization identified several risk factors associated with a man's risk for abusing his partner (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Based on the same research evidence, the Kansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence identified additional risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration. Still, these risk factors likely represent an incomplete list. Several risk factors at the relationship level of the social ecological model are:

Abuses of power in relationships

Dominance and control of the relationship by one partner over the other

Male dominance in the family

Poor family functioning

Psychological violence

Strategies for Changing Relationship Risk Factors

Curricula and Approaches
On an individual and relationship level, the bonds between family members and peers must be focused on and strengthened. Creating a positive environment, conducive to educating and increasing knowledge is imperative to strengthening families and in turn strengthening communities. The activities should engage both and provide resources and tools to help increase knowledge to promote healthy relationships. One approach to changing culture and behaviors among peers and others is bystander intervention.

"Please Stand Up!" is an interactive CD-ROM for middle and high school students, educators, parents and community members to help eradicate school violence by showing you the best way to handle a variety of dangerous and self-destructive situations. www.pleasestandup.org

Media literacy
Intimate partner violence is supported by many societal-level influences. One of the major ways that this happen is through media, including images and language. Primary prevention addresses media literacy by raising people's awareness about the messages we receive through media. By becoming a critical consumer of media, people can make choices about the kinds of media they consume as well as advocate for change. The resources listed below include examples of media literacy strategies as well as tools.

Working toward change at the community level is essential in supporting lasting individual change as well as lasting social change. The community level involves the local context such as community norms about relationships and violence. Community settings include neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.

Risk Factors Associated with Intimate Partner Violence

Far more is known about risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration than victimization. Also, prevention programs appear far more successful at preventing perpetration than victimization. Perhaps this is because perpetrators are ultimately responsible for their actions, and it is difficult for another person to anticipate and control an abuser's actions. The World Health Organization identified several risk factors associated with a man's risk for abusing his partner (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Based on the same research evidence, the Kansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence identified additional risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration. Still, these risk factors likely represent an incomplete list. Several risk factors at the community level of the social ecological model are:

Low social capital, especially women

Negative portrayal of women in the media

Poverty, especially among women

Weak community sanctions against domestic violence perpetrators

Strategies and Approaches

Community Awareness
"Days of Respect: Organizing a School-wide Violence Prevention Program" Step-by-step instructions for putting together an event that brings together students, parents, teachers and community leaders for a common goal: preventing violence and creating an atmosphere of respect in school so that everyone can feel safe. www.paulkivel.com

Community Readiness Community Readiness: Ability and willingness to implement strategies. Readiness is a continuum from no knowledge, to a community's awareness of IPV, to interest in preventing IPV, to motivation to take part in prevention, to willingness to change or implement specific strategies. SAMSHA's nine levels of readiness and ways to improve it:http://captus.samhsa.gov/southwest/documents/CommunityReadiness-quickhandout.pdf

Community Mobilization
Primary prevention work must be integrated into a community infrastructure. Community can mean different things in different places; it may mean a geographic location, an age group, a population, etc. Regardless of how community is defined, our goal is to involve as many diverse partners as possible in our work. Because we are seeking social change and not just individual change, we really need buy-in from a variety of people, organizations, and institutions. Community mobilization is an innovative strategy that is developed with a community. In other words, what works for one community may not work for another, but that's okay. The resources listed below are intended to provide examples of successful community mobilization strategies as well as suggest ideas for mobilization.

Check with your local city/town parks and recreation to see what is going on in your community, be aware of related activities.

Community Action Team (CAT)

A community action team is a group of people who are involved in a community wide effort to prevent intimate partner violence before it occurs. The community action team should include "non-traditional partners" such as: School board representatives, members of the local faith community, and other stakeholders who work with youth. The community action team may initially be led by a representative from the local domestic violence center but the members should ultimately take ownership of the group and its mission to prevent intimate partner violence. The structure of the community action team may vary. The group should come to a consensus on the group norms and structure that work best for its members.

Community Actions Teams are an essential piece to the overall success of prevention plans for any cause. In the case of intimate partner violence, they are the core of long-term success of ending violence. With intimate partner violence being seen in large part as a secretive family matter, community action teams are charged with bringing the issue to the public as well as changing the social norms that support men's violence against women. Community Action Teams are a great way for spreading messages through the community that denounce the use of control and violence in intimate relationships. The following resources will help you to create, train and sustain community members on your action teams.

In order for primary prevention to take hold, we also must incorporate it into our policy and organizational practice. This entails examining our current policy as well as creating new policy when needed. It also includes providing the support, such as training, for staff and organizational practice change. The following resources are included as examples of policies.

Primary prevention includes working to change societal norms and values. One immediate example is gender stereotypes. We must consider the role that attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs such as boys are "tough," girls are "emotional," boys are better leaders than girls, men should be the head of the household, etc. play in supporting intimate partner violence. The resources listed below are intended to provide examples of organizations working to change social norms and values as well as to suggest how you might be able to do that.

Risk Factors Associated with Intimate Partner Violence

Far more is known about risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration than victimization. Also, prevention programs appear far more successful at preventing perpetration than victimization. Perhaps this is because perpetrators are ultimately responsible for their actions, and it is difficult for another person to anticipate and control an abuser's actions. The World Health Organization identified several risk factors associated with a man's risk for abusing his partner (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Based on the same research evidence, the Kansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence identified additional risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration. Still, these risk factors likely represent an incomplete list. Several risk factors the societal level of the social ecological model are:

Historical and societal patterns that glorify violence against women

Institutional structures that promote unequal power between men and women

Men's gender-role socialization processes

Social norms supportive of violence

Traditional gender norms

Women's gender-role socialization processes

Strategies for Change at the Societal Level

Strategies to change societal level risk factors are newer and less well studied for IPV primary prevention. Below are several types of strategies that have been useful in related fields, such as substance abuse prevention. The following studies are examples to illustrate what such a strategy may look like.

Strategy: State health departments developed and mobilized local coalitions to carry out program activities. Study included policy intervention (increase in cigarette price) and mass media advertising.

Results: In 1996 (ASSIST began in 1989), Data suggests that community mobilization and media advertizing decreased consumption, over and above the impact of the increase in cigarette price.

Strategy: Two episodes of ER were developed and broadcast that included a storyline about a gay man diagnosed with Syphilis. Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action.

Results: Men who viewed the program were more likely to report personal intentions to get tested for Syphilis and to encourage their friends to get tested compared to men who did not view the two episodes. However, men who viewed the episodes were also more likely to be older, White, and have more education compared to the men who didn't watch the program.

Strategy: Used the "Journey" web-site to teach students about organ donation. Students were exposed to the 7-page website at one point in time, which took 30 minutes to read through. Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Results: Knowledge increased in the experimental condition from 73% to 84%. 21.8% of participants exposed to the Journey website contacted the donor registry, versus 15.7% of controls. The mean rating of pro-donation attitudes increased in the experimental condition from 4.96 to 5.48.

Strategy: "Peer action teams" developed different projects to influence their peers not to drink. Media included printed materials such as calendars, newsletters, and posters targeting both adolescents and adults. Based on Theory of Triadic Influence.

Results: Students were significantly less likely to increase alcohol use to binge drink.

Strategy: Reorganization of the University Judicial System, new sanctions for substance-abuse related violations of the Code of Student Conduct, parental notification policy. Based on PRECEDE-PROCEED model.

"Breaking Out of 'The Man Box'" radically challenges the socialization of men by examining the social norms, culture and traditional images of manhood that has created an environment that supports, tolerates and often encourages men's violence against women. The founders of A Call To Men provide concrete solutions and practical approaches toward ending men's violence against women. These men provide great insight into the construct of sexism and courageously challenge the privileges and entitlements given to men. This highly sought after educational tool is unique in its ability to be affirming and respectful to the experiences of women while expressing genuine care and hope for men. http://www.acalltomen.com/

"Killing Us Softly 3" Jean Kilbourne continues her groundbreaking analysis of advertising's depiction of women in this most recent update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series. In fascinating detail, Kilbourne decodes an array of print and television advertisements to reveal a pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes. Her analysis challenges us to consider the relationship between advertising and broader issues of culture, identity, sexism, and gender violence.www.mediaed.org

"Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity" with Jackson Katz, is the first educational video geared toward college and high school students to systematically examine the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the U.S. at the dawn of the 21st century. Jackson Katz is one of America's leading anti-sexist male activists. An educator, author and filmmaker, he is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in gender violence prevention education with men and boys. This exciting new media literacy tool-- utilizing racially diverse subject matter and examples-- will enlighten and provoke students (both males and females) to evaluate their own participation in the culture of contemporary masculinity. www.mediaed.org

"Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes" provides a riveting examination of manhood, sexism, and homophobia in hip-hop culture. Critically acclaimed for its fearless engagement with issues of race, gender violence, and the corporate exploitation of youth culture. Director Byron Hurt, former star college quarterback, longtime hip-hop fan, and gender violence prevention educator, conceived the documentary as a "loving critique" of a number of disturbing trends in the world of rap music. He pays tribute to hip-hop while challenging the rap music industry to take responsibility for glamorizing destructive, deeply conservative stereotypes of manhood. www.mediaed.org

"Spin the Bottle: Sex, Lies and Alcohol," offers an indispensable critique of the role that contemporary popular culture plays in glamorizing excessive drinking and high-risk behaviors. Award-winning media critics Jackson Katz and Jean Kilbourne contrast these distorted representations with the often disturbing and dangerous ways that alcohol consumption affects the lives of real young men and women. Illustrating their analysis with numerous examples, Katz and Kilbourne decode the power and influence these seductive media images have in shaping gender identity, which is linked to the use of alcohol. Nowhere is this link more cause for concern than on America's college campuses. www.mediaed.org

"It Takes a Team: Making Sports Safe for LGBT Athletes and Coaches" This educational "kit"--which includes a 15-minute video, a discussion and resource guide, an informational poster, and colorful "Safe Space" stickers--is intended to help coaches/teachers, parents, and school administrators educate students/athletes about the harmful effects of homophobia and asks the question, "How can we make sure that people in athletics are evaluated, not based on their sexual orientation or gender expression, but on their individual character and accomplishments?" The DVD includes the video and digital versions of the educational materials for easy printing. www.mediaed.org

"Game Over: Gender, Race and Violence in Video Games" is the first educational documentary to address the fastest growing segment of the media through engaging questions of gender, race and violence. Game Over offers a refreshing dialogue about the complex and controversial topic of video game violence, and is designed to encourage high school and college students to think critically about the video games they play. www.mediaed.org

"Please Stand Up!" is an interactive CD-ROM for middle and high school students, educators, parents and community members to help eradicate school violence by showing you the best way to handle a variety of dangerous and self-destructive situations. www.pleasestandup.org

"Wrestling with Manhood" is the first educational program to pay attention to the enormous popularity of professional wrestling among male youth, addressing its relationship to real-life violence and probing the social values that sustain it as a powerful cultural force. Richly illustrating their analysis with numerous examples, Sut Jhally and Jackson Katz - the award-winning creators of the videos Dreamworlds and Tough Guise, respectively - offer a new way to think about the enduring problems of men's violence against women and bullying in our schools. www.mediaed.org